Philip Snowden

Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden (18 July 1864-15 May 1937) was the British Chancellor of the Exchequer from 22 January to 3 November 1924 (succeeding Neville Chamberlain and preceding Winston Churchill) and from 7 June 1929 to 5 November 1931 (succeeding Churchill and preceding Chamberlain). He was a member of the Labour Party.

Biography
Philip Snowden was born in Cowling, West Riding of Yorkshire, England in 1864, and was educated in York. He worked as a school teacher, an insurance clerk, and for the Inland Revenue. He joined the Independent Labor Party in 1894, was its Chairman from 1903 to 1906, and became an MP for Blackburn in 1906. He opposed British entry into World War I and lost his seat in 1918, though he was reelected for Colne Valley in 1922. A crucial moderating influence upon the Labour Party, he insisted that only moderate and gradual policies would ensure electoral success. As the party's first Chancellor of the Exchequer under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924, therefore, he surprised many by proposing a tax-cutting budget. As Chancellor of the Exchequer again in 1929, he rejected schemes to tackle unemployment through public spending, and in 1931, supported the proposal to cut unemployment benefits, which resulted in MacDonald forming the National Government. He was, briefly, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in this government, but went to the House of Lords as Lord Privy Seal in November 1931. The lifelong free trader resigned the following year, in opposition to the imposition of protection (tariff reform) in the Ottawa Agreements. He died in 1937.